Recent article comments

Nine to compete for four Council seats

This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Concerns about only a small number of people running for Baker City Council were premature.

Nine candidates are vying for the four open seats on the Nov. 6 ballot, which is mailed to voters in October.

The two last candidates to obtain the necessary signatures from registered voters within the city were Jack Turner and Kimberley Mosier.

Turner is the former publisher of the Baker City Herald. Mosier is an instructor in the criminal justice program at Blue Mountain Community College and a former deputy district attorney for Baker County.

Three of the seats are for four-year terms and the fourth is a two-year term. The candidate in this election who receives the fourth-highest number of votes serves the shorter term, according to the Baker City Charter.

The other incumbent who could have run for a second term is Councilor Aletha Bonebrake. The retired Baker County library director said she decided not to run again because she’s busy with out-of-town library consulting work.

Bonebrake said she hasn’t ruled out running for the council in the future because she’s enjoyed her time spent serving the community.

She also would be open to coming back on to the city parks and recreation committee as a citizen. She’s the council’s representative to the volunteer advisory group that was formed in 2011 so her membership to that group ends when her term in office is over.

Councilors Sam Bass and Beverly Calder have reached their term limits for council service so they weren’t able to run again this year.

Mayor Dennis Dorrah and Councilors Clair Button and Roger Coles are the other three incumbents. Their seats are open for election in 2014 along with the person elected to council who receives the fourth-highest vote count on the November ballot.

Baker City intends to feature information about each of the nine candidates on their website: www.bakercity.com. The Herald also will be covering the election.